Masterpieces made to order

Dave and Nadine Wall are keen to make masterpieces for their customers. Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

Quitting a thriving city printing business to open an art gallery was no small move for a couple with a young family.

But Dave and Nadine Wall probably have the perfect blend of skills to make a success of Masterpieces - their gallery with a new take on art.

Masterpieces, which opened in Newmarket this week, offers wall hangings created from customers' own photographs.

These can range from miniatures to murals, with the only limit to the way the images can be used and displayed being the customer's creativity.

The new venture follows six years' building the city branch of Snap Printing from a small business to one with a turnover of more than $1 million.

During that time they found their customers were increasingly wanting help with their printed material, which led the Walls to broaden their services beyond printing and photocopying to consulting, creative design and graphics work.

When customers wanted images they could not find in highly priced image galleries, the pair, who both have photography backgrounds, would take the photos themselves.

As they became busier and busier with one-off, creative jobs with people's personal photos, Mr Wall started seeing the service as a "business within a business", sparking the idea for Masterpieces.

Now, set up with industrial printers and all the equipment for picture framing, graphic work and photography, the Walls are offering a one-stop shop for many of the things people struggle to do with their photos without the right software and printers at home.

"These days just about everyone has a digital camera. They take a huge number of photos - after all there are no film or printing costs - but they are not doing much with them," said Mr Wall.

"We want to change that and give people imagery that's innovative and worthy of being displayed either at home or in the business environment, and it doesn't cost them an arm and a leg."

Ultimately he describes the service as "art the way you want it".

Masterpieces can resize, retouch, change or invert the colour of photos, and add creative effects by adding filters, or finishes.

The aim is to bring out the inspiration behind the photo.

It can then be printed on a range of surfaces ranging from poster paper through to high grade photo or fine art papers, textiles or canvas, and mounted or framed.

Although they specialise in photographic images, the pieces can also be created from a drawing or painting.

Prices range from $20 for a standalone print to $1000 for the largest-sized canvas, which they say is a cost-effective way to get a piece of personalised art.

Although there are other places to go for these services, Mr Wall was not aware of anyone else offering the whole package.

They felt they needed a gallery to display samples of what could be done with photos, and picked Short St, Newmarket, for its mix of premiere retail and business traffic.

Nadine also hoped the displays would inspire people to use their cameras more.

"Art is so subjective, but with this it's your memories," she said.

"What we do is take that occasion and make it a piece of art."

The Walls expect a lot of corporate clients to commission artwork for offices.

They also hope the concept will appeal to tourists looking to do something creative with their holiday shots.

The doors have been open two weeks and although they were expecting a slow start, foot traffic has been moderate and has already yielded some big orders.

Mr Wall wants to look at franchising the concept, and is planning for branches throughout Australasia in the long term.

For now the pair have a fulltime graphic designer and plan to hire a full-time photographer shortly.